AFF 2016: cinema in the superlative in Sibiu

Cinema in the superlative is what Astra Film Festival brings to Sibiu, between the 17 and 23 of October 2016. The selection of the 23rd edition stands out through the diversity of formats and topics. The programme includes not only auteur films, awarded and appraised worldwide, but also new formats, nowadays experimented in film production, presenting a situation of contemporary cinema.

Famed for originality in programming, over 100 films from the AFF 2016 official programme are grouped into 18 theme programmes: OutStanDox, Self/Family/Society, No place like Displace, Doc-Vlog, Refurbished past, Citizens of the online world, Aromanians, Inside Radical Islam, Communist Faiths, Stories from Urbania, Circumscribed Spaces, Encounters, Reality under cover, Great Masters/recent works, Special screenings, Portrait Frederick Wiseman, The Future is Now and Astra Film Junior.

Films and filmmakers of the AFF programme entering the 2017 Oscar race

The 2016 selection of films is top-notch and in Sibiu, Astra Film outlines the 2017 Oscar honours list with no fewer than three names: Cristi Puiu with Sieranevada, Romania’s entry for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Gianfranco Rosi with his documentary Fuocoammare, awarded the Golden Bear at the 2016 Berlinale and Italy’s entry for the Oscars for Best Foreign Film, and Frederick Wiseman, to whom an Oscar will be handed over for his entire career stretching over more than five decades.

Seeing Frederick Wiseman in Sibiu

Frederick Wiseman is the documentary filmmaker with the greatest contribution to world cinema. Three of his works, Crazy Horse and Domestic Violence I and II, will be screened in Sibiu, and on Friday, the 21st of October, at 6:15 pm at Sala Auditorium, the audience will have the unique opportunity to see Wiseman, a legend of documentary film.

A jury consisting of 12 experts

12 professionals from the European film industry will assess the films from this year’s four competitive sections: OutStanDox, Romania, Central & Eastern Europe and Student. The members of the AFF 2016 jury are: Alexander Weiss, artistic director of the Filmer A Tout Prix festival in Brussels, Barbara Orlicz-Szczypula, programming director of the Krakow Film Festival, Claire Aguilar, programming director of Sheffield Doc/Fest, Cristi Puiu, Romanian filmmaker, Ileana Bîrsan, film critic, Julia Teichmann, film critic from Germany, Martichka Bozhilova, producer at AGITPROP and director of the Balkan Documentary Center, Michael Stewart, director of Open City Doc Fest in London, Nick Bradshaw, web editor at the prestigious Sight & Sound magazine, published by the British Film Institute, Sara Garcia, artistic director of the Play-Doc festival in Spain, Veton Nurkollari, artistic director of DokuFest in Kosovo and member of the European Cultural Parliament and the European Film Academy, Vlad Petri, documentary filmmaker and photographer.

Sieranevada, the gala screening that opens AFF 2016

There is a particular relationship between filmmaker Cristi Puiu and Astra Film Festival, that has begun precisely a decade ago this year. His most recent feature film, Sieranevada, will be premiered in Sibiu, on Monday, the 17 of October 2016, at 6:00 pm at Sala Thalia (3-5 Cetății Street) and at 6:30 pm at Sala Auditorium of ULBS (The Faculty of Medicine, 2A Lucian Blaga Street). On Tuesday, the 18 of October, director Cristi Puiu will meet with the audience starting with 6:00 pm at Salut Bistro (13 Cetății Street).

Screening events and concerts

The programme of the 2016 edition is crowned with a series of live musical performances which will entertain film buffs present in Sibiu. The screening of the films in the Aromanians section will be followed by a fabulous concert of Aromanian music and a concert given by Mara & Band on Tuesday, the 18 of October, at 10:00 pm at Sala Thalia. The band Kana Jambe led by Dan Bursuc will perform live on Thursday, the 20 of October, at 8:30 pm at Sala Thalia before the screening event of the film The New Gypsys Kings (directed by Liviu Tipuriță). On Saturday, the 22 of October, following the Gala Awards, Moonlight Breakfast will go on the stage at Sala Thalia at 10:00 pm. This year’s live shows will indulge everybody, as the mosaic of music genre matches the diversity of the AFF programme.